Country Lore: Use Beetle Traps to Control Japanese Beetles

Control Japanese beetles by catching them in beetle traps. These pesky Japanese beetles make great snacks for catfish, bluegills and other pond fish.

By Bob Falk

| June/July 2008

Catfish and bluegill love pesky Japanese beetles.Photo by Bob Falk

I’ve been after my rose-growing wife to buy chickens for years now. I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to convince her that chickens would help control Japanese beetles that damage her flowers.

With last year’s hot, dry summer here in Ohio, the beetle population was out of control, so until we get those chickens, we put up a few beetle traps that use scent lures to attract and trap pests.

When the beetle trap bags fill up with the beetles, I put them in the freezer for about a day to chill them. Then I feed the beetles to the fish in our pond. The catfish can eat a dozen of them in a mouthful and the bluegill love them, too!

Bob Falk
Bluffton, Ohio

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Share your thoughts.

Curt Bolin

7/30/2008 9:53:33 AM

After reading this article, I thought why not put the beetle trap in the water, I cut the end off the bag, held it open with some wire, hung it in the water, about a half-inch off the water. The beetles fall into the water, float out and the fish lay and wait on them. I had the end in the water first but the fish kept knocking it down when the would jump up into the bottom of the bag to the the beetles.

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